Reference may be made to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,403,793; 4,611,826; 4,614,363; 4,687,228; 4,720,408; 4,741,558 of interest.
Credit card transactions are normally recorded on an assebled pack or "formset" of transaction slips or components for recording information on a merchant copy, customer copy, and a bank copy in a three ply formset, for example. Depending upon the number of such transaction slips contained in the pack, one or more separate duplicating carbon slips may be included. Alternatively, one or more of the transaction slips may be formed with the duplicating medium, normally carbon material, on the back of the slip, such transaction slips being commonly referred to as a carbon-on-back (COB) slip.
As indicated in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,793, significant fraud problems arising from the use of separate duplicating carbon slips containing customer account information may be eliminated by the invention described therein in which the carbon slips are split apart to divide the customer's account number and are then thrown away to provide an industry recognized, effective fraud deterrent.
The use of carbon-on-back (COB) slips in a pack or formset also is an effective fraud deterrent because one of the parties--usually the merchant or customer will retain the transaction slip which is formed as a COB slip. However, the party retaining the COB slip is subjected to a potential messy and dirty situation in which the carbon can smudge fingers, clothing, and other documents and may also unintentionally ingest carbon particles and be subjected to further complications. Thus, if the COB slip is given to a customer, the carbon can readily smudge a purse, wallet, shirt pocket, and fingers while being temporarily carried to a place of more permanent storage where it can smudge other documents. Similarly, a COB slip retained by the merchant readily smudges a waiter/waitress' or clerk's hands, cash registers or other containers into which the COB may be temporarily placed prior to more permanent filing. Particularly in the case of a waiter/waitress or retail clerk handling a multitude of transactions during the day, carbon smudges built up on the handler's fingers and work area equipment is annoying and a nuisance to the handler as well as distasteful to the merchant's customers. In the case of waiters and waitresses the carbon smudges is a potential health hazard and could lead to violations of laws regulating the handling and preparing of restaurant food. These same problems exist when the party retains separate duplicating carbon slips as a fraud deterrent where these loose carbon slips are not split apart in accordance with the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,403,793.
An alternative to the separate duplicating carbon slips and the COB slips has been to use a carbonless copy paper (CCP). In some commercially available carbonless copy paper the CCP is formed by applying a resin coating on the front of a bottom sheet and with a top sheet having a coated back with a suspension of microcapsules that contain a colorless dye. Pressure on the front face of the top sheet ruptures the capsules on the coated back to allow the dye to react chemically with the resin on the coated front of the bottom sheet thereby resulting in dye visualization. These coated paper sheets or slips are known as "CCP-coated front (CF)" and "CCP-coated back (CB)". In other commercially available carbonless copy paper the resin and dye microcapsules are both coated on the same surface. These coated paper sheets or slips are known as "CCP-self-contained (SC)".
It has now been found that the resin on the coated front of the CCP appears to cause adverse reactions on persons contacting the resin as reported in "Acute Systemic Reactions To Carbonless Copy Paper Associated With Histamine Release", Dr. F. P. LaMarte, et al., The Journal of The American Medical Association, July 8, 1988, Vol. 260, #2, page 242-243. Because the CCP slip limits the need for using duplicating carbon slips, it is a useful fraud deterrent in credit card transactions. In addition sheets of CCP are extensively used in other business form packs, such as invoices, purchase orders, statements, internal memorandum, etc. Accordingly, it is desired to continue to utilize carbonless copy paper to obtain its benefits while attempting to eliminate the recently recognized detrimental effects of the CCP resin.